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War Criminals on Trial

( Updated: 02/04/2014 )

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Former Liberian President Charles Taylor makes his first appearance at the Special Court in Freetown, Sierra Leone, April 3, 2006. The 64-year-old who was once one of West Africa's most powerful figures has written Liberia's Senate seeking at least $25,000 per year in retirement pay he insists he's owed under the constitution. George Osodi/AP

Pascal Simbikangwa, 54, Rwanda's former intelligence chief. Simbikangwa could face a life sentence if convicted after the seven-week trial — the first in France over Rwanda's genocide. He faces genocide and war crimes charges as his trial began Feb. 4, 2014 in France for a 1994 killing spree that left at least a half-million people in his nation dead. Interpol/AP

Ivory Coast's former president Laurent Gbagbo (c.) talks to a security guard during his initial court appearance at the International Criminal Court in The Hague December 5, 2011. Gbagbo appeared at the ICC facing charges of crimes against humanity, including murder and rape, the first former head of state expected to be tried by the court since its inception in 2002. Peter Dejong/Reuters

Then Kenyan Presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta (r.) and his running mate William Ruto (l.) greet the crowd as they arrive at the final election rally of Kenyatta's The National Alliance party at Uhuru Park in Nairobi, Kenya, March 2, 2013. President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto face trial at The Hague for allegedly inciting post-election violence. Ben Curtis/AP

Seif al-Islam is seen after his capture in the custody of revolutionary fighters in Zintan, Libya, Nov. 19, 2011. Libya's official news agency says the imprisoned son of slain dictator Muammar Qaddafi has made his first appearance in a local court on charges of harming state security, attempting to escape prison and insulting the nation's new flag. Ammar El-Darwish/AP

Saddam Hussein yells in court as he receives his verdict, as a bailiff attempts to silence him, during his trial held under tight security in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on November 5, 2006. US-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra said Saddam Hussein had been executed by hanging on December 30, 2006. David Furst/Reuters

Tariq Aziz, former Iraqi foreign minister and deputy prime minister speaks to the Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq on September 5, 2010. Iraqi state TV says former Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz has been sentenced to death for persecuting Shiite political parties during Saddam Hussein's regime. Hadi Mizban/AP

Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin, known as 'Chemical Ali,' reacts as a special Iraqi court sentenced him to death Dec. 2, 2008, in Baghdad, Iraq, after convicting him of crimes against humanity while crushing the 1991 Shiite uprising in southern Iraq. Ali Hassan al-Majid already faces death by hanging after being convicted last year for his role in the killing of tens of thousands of Kurds in a crackdown in the late 1980s. APTN/AP

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, with court security guards at left and right, appears before the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, July 3, 2001. Milosevic walked into the U.N. tribunal courtroom without lawyers to represent him against charges of war crimes against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999. AP

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic sits in the courtroom on the first day of his defense against war crime charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague October 16, 2012. Karadzic is one of a trio of architects of the Balkan wars brought to trial in The Hague for wars among the successor countries and the peoples of multi-ethnic Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1999, in which well over 100,000 people were killed and millions were displaced. Robin van Lonkhuijsen/Reuters

Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir gestures prior to being sworn in, at the parliament in Khartoum, Sudan on May 27, 2010. On July 12, 2010, the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, charged Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with three counts of genocide in Darfur, a move that will pile further diplomatic pressure on his isolated regime. The decision marked the first time the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal has issued genocide charges. Abd Raouf/AP

Jean Kambanda listens to the court proceeding before being sentenced to life in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda September 4, 1998 in Arusha, Tanzania. He pleaded guilty on May 1 to six counts of genocide and crimes against humanity, including responsibility for the murder and extermination of civilians. Kambanda was prime minister of Rwanda during the 1994 genocide where over 500,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were massacred. Jean-Marc Bouju/AP

Notorious Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot on trial July 25, 2007 at the Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Ven in northern Cambodia. A Cambodian witness to the trial reported Pol Pot was calm during most of his recent show trial but was shaken and almost brought to tears when accused of being as bad as strongman Hun Sen. Pol Pot, the architect of the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 'killing fields' rule during which more than a million Cambodians were killed by execution, torture, disease, starvation or hard labor, was sentenced to life imprisonment by his former comrades. Reuters

Cambodia's former President Khieu Samphan talks to his lawyer's assistant during his trial at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on the outskirts of Phnom Penh January 10, 2012. The UN-backed tribunal resumed the trial of Khieu Samphan, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and 'Brother Number Two' Nuon Chea, the top surviving commanders of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime. They are charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the bloody 'Killing Fields' revolution that wiped out a quarter of the population. Nhet Sokheng/Reuters

Japanese Prime Minister and World War II leader Hideki Tojo, who was directly responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor, is pictured on September 9, 1943. After WWII, Tojo was arrested by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and sentenced to death. AP

Bashar al-Assad’s pull-out-the-stops assault on civilians holed up in the city of Homs Thursday offers an answer to questions about how much the Syrian leader fears international threats to charge him with crimes against humanity: apparently not much.